Episode 3 of Hindi TV serial – Katha Sagar – Teen Sadhu is an adaptation of a short story named The Three Hermits (Russian: Три Старца) written by Leo Tolstoy earlier in 1885. The story was first published in 1886 in a weekly named Niva (нива). The story is often referred as – The Three Holy men – or – Three Holy Men.

Teen Sadhu – Katha Sagar

The story is very popular and it was adapted in the form of an opera of the same name in 1997 (by American composer – Stephen Paulus) as well.

The story’s strength lies in the simplicity and the strong message it conveys. It is about the prayer. If we explore it in a broad way we may realize that no formalities are required to convey anything to the God. The rituals, the way of prayer etc. are definitely important. They guide us to follow a proper way to pray and thank – the God – by showing respect to him. But, the most important thing is The Pure Heart. If you are sitting into a temple or a church (you are in the home of the God) but if your heart is not pure, if you are thinking something different, if your prayer is uttered from your mouth only and not from the heart; it doesn’t serve the purpose.

Let us take a brief look at the content of this episode which explores the Indian adaptation of this story.

A spiritual leader, his two aide and a few other passengers were traveling through a bus. All of a sudden the Bus was stopped due to some technical problems. It was a jungle area and the time of noon. It was summer that time so being stuck in such no-man’s land made all the passengers furious and disappointed including the aide of the spiritual leader – referred as Maharaj. Maharaj was very calm though. He with his words of wisdom and spirituality made the follow passengers calm. They all decided to get out of the Bus and rest below any tree in the hot summer noon, as the driver suggested that it will take a couple of hours to get the Bus repaired.

As one of his aide was furious with hunger and hot environment; Maharaj remained calm and composed. Maharaj asked both his aide to enjoy and understand the nature and its beauty. He then conveyed a lot of words of wisdom to them – the entire long conversation is worth watching.

Maharaj then approached by some locales and he got to know about the three men – who are living on the other end of the river. The three men is not talking to anyone and remain closed from nature. Ultimately, after hearing a lot about those three men, Maharaj decided to pay them a visit and guide them properly so they can perform their spiritual stuff properly. With this pious intention to guide them to a meaningful life and afterlife, Maharaj decided to cross the river via a boat. However the locales said that the three men and meeting them is not worth the time of spiritual leader like Maharaj.

What Maharaj’s visit to the three men resulted into? Well, we suggest you to rather watch the episode to know.

There are a lot of words of wisdom in this episode and the script writer needed to pay attention to the same when writing the episode. He done his job very effectively by adding simplicity to those words. This episode has prayer singing and the playback singers played their part very well too. The background music is fantastic as well. The locales and sets are authentic. Satyen Kappu is a fantastic actor and we see him in full form here. We wonder, why he didn’t get so much meaty roles! Sudhir Dalwi and Brahmachari are in form as well, and played their part fantastically.

The extras who played passengers didn’t act convincingly. The special effects are very poor. The scenes of people walking on the water are not convincing at all.

Overall it is the episode which conveys a very simple yet powerful message to be pure at heart. The episode is definitely worth watching. We insist that the parent should have shown such tele serials to their kids. Today, when it is tough to find such nice stuff to watch, Cinevistaas made this stuff available to watch for free at YouTube as well. Kudos to them.